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Be careful what you write

TheeWriter

Hello Creative Writer, The other day my mother called me out of the blue. She was quiet and stumbling over  her words, back tracking, taking long slow breathes. “What’s wrong? Who died?” I asked. Finally she said. “I was going through some boxes from the old house. I found a bunch of old stuffed animals of yours and some papers.” “Ok?” “Thomasa. I had no idea you were so unhappy.” She preceded to tell me about something I wrote in 2013- a melodramatic lament about the woes of my life. I talked about my insecurities about my self worth and … Continue reading Be careful what you write

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Finding the Right Word

TheeWriter

Hey Creative Writer, Have you even been in the middle of writing something when you come to a grinding halt because your brain stumbles on a word? You know you know it. It’s on the tip of  your tongue. And it’s the perfect word but you’re mind won’t produce it? Yeah… we’ve all been there. The thing about written communication is that it’s more difficult to convey meaning and easier to cause confusion. Without being able to rely on body language, expressions, tone, inflection and the like you are literally reliant on the words on the page. So, yes the … Continue reading Finding the Right Word

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Why we hate some remakes and praise others

TheeWriter

Hello Creative Writer, Today I’m just going to muse on the wonderful world of re imagined stories. We have all been there. We are flicking though videos on Youtube when we see a title like “Coming Soon: Disney Remakes Classic” You roll your eyes. Why? Why, can’t we get something new? Why indeed.. Yes, often a company will decide to take a property it owns and remake it a different way to exploit the nostalgia of it’s original audience in order to squeeze as much additional profit from the title as possible. But creatively retelling a story is sometimes an … Continue reading Why we hate some remakes and praise others

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The New Normal

TheeWriter

Hey Creative Writer. Long time- no see. Let’s be honest. 2020 has majorly sucked (excuse me language) Between a global pandemic, in-fighting, political and social turmoil, stay at home orders and natural disasters it’s been a wild ride. And I’m not going to lie to you- writing hasn’t even touched my priority list. I think most of us can agree that life is different now.. Covid-19 marks a before and an after in our history. But what does the “after” look like? I haven’t the foggiest because right now we are still in the “during”. The new normal of right … Continue reading The New Normal

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Pandemic Poetry

noodlepoet

April’s just about passed in a frantic blur as we adjust to new restrictions, new fears, and isolation. It’s been a while since the blog’s been very active, and it feels strange to be blogging just now, as if things are normal. Nothing is normal now and there’s no telling what normal will look like at the end of this. But if we still have readers: hi. Hope you’re all well, and safe, and finding ways to cope. This morning I discovered some poetry apps on my phone, downloaded in anticipation of National Poetry Month and forgotten in all of … Continue reading Pandemic Poetry

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Ideas

noodlepoet

Haven’t written as much the last couple weeks and my brain is rebelling, persistently shoving ideas to the surface like a game of Whack-a-Mole. Zine ideas. Revisions for the accidental novella. POEMS. Plot notes for the two (!) new (!) longer-than-I-have-the-discipline-for stories. One came to me in a dream, one was a FINISHED. SHORT. STORY. that betrayed me the second I tried to tweak the ending. Did I mention zine ideas? Let’s mention them again, because they’re multiplying like bunnies. You spend half your writing life asking “Where do ideas come from?” and the other half painfully aware of the … Continue reading Ideas

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Music for Writers

noodlepoet

We all know music influences your mood. It can even be a shortcut to the mood you want, so I have a playlist for just about every state of mind I could need to access on any given day. Energizing playlists for cleaning and working out; road trip playlists carefully curated to keep me peppy but not too hyped on long drives; a Calm Down playlist for when my anxiety spikes (also essential for road trips); a slightly different mellow playlist to help me sleep when I’m restless; and, since it’s that time of year, a winter/Christmas playlist to keep … Continue reading Music for Writers

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How Not to Support a Writer

noodlepoet

A partner once asked me why I never shared my writing with him. “I’ve shown you stories,” I reminded him. “The ones I won that award for.” “Everybody saw those,” he said, dismissing them. I don’t think he’d bothered to read the stories, because that wasn’t the point of this exercise. What mattered to him—what threatened him—was that I had an inner life, one I didn’t share with him. If he truly mattered more than everybody else, I needed to prove it by sharing something unfinished, something no one else had seen. I never caved to that pressure, but that … Continue reading How Not to Support a Writer

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How did your NANOWRIMO go?

TheeWriter

So November is officially over and for those of you who were working diligently on your novels I commend you! Trying to write an entire 50,000 word novel in a single month is daunting but it is also a great exercise in just doing it. Often, I feel that my stories suffer from the dreaded belief that it’s never going to be right. The story in my mind is this big shiny thing- it’s absolutely perfect and what ends up on the page is never quite what I was striving for. So, I re-write it and re-write it and erase … Continue reading How did your NANOWRIMO go?

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November is National Novel Writing Month

noodlepoet

It’s a big job, writing a novel, but NaNoWriMo turns a daunting ambition into a celebration, hundreds of thousands of writers coming together to cheer each other on through this mad dash at creation. 50,000 words. 30 days. It’s absolutely doable. Except, my head would explode if I started something new right now. Between seasonal depression and holiday angst, I feel like I’d be setting myself up for failure. But maybe that’s a good reason to try a little harder this month. Not having a new project to embark on or any hope of writing 50,000 words of anything before November … Continue reading November is National Novel Writing Month